


A Christmas Mix-up

by amiraculousladybug



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bad Weather, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Gift Fic, Identity Reveal, No Spoilers, Post-Canon, Secret Santa, they patrol anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 00:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13135341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amiraculousladybug/pseuds/amiraculousladybug
Summary: Adrien misses out on a Christmas Eve party with Alya, Nino, and Marinette. Then Marinette finds out that Chat Noir is spending Christmas Eve by himself, and agrees to meet up for patrol even though the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Mistakes and misunderstandings ensue.





	A Christmas Mix-up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalunaunita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalunaunita/gifts).



> Aaand this is officially my second longest oneshot after Why?. Holy crap. (Why do I do this to myself whenever I sign up for a fic exchange?)  
> Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all enjoy! Especially you, lalunaunita!

“So you really can't come?” Alya paced back and forth across Marinette's room, her hand white-knuckled on her phone. Marinette and Nino watched from the chaise lounge.

“I'm sorry.” Alya had put the phone on speaker; Marinette could hear Adrien's voice over the phone from across the room. “Father left earlier than I thought he would, so I didn't get a chance to ask him about going out tonight.”

“You can have the gorilla drive you, can't you?” Nino jumped in.

“Not without my father's permission.” Adrien sighed. “I'm really sorry, guys. I know I promised I'd come over, but…”

“It's Christmas Eve!” Alya protested. Marinette thought to herself that Alya looked about ready to break down the front door of the Agreste mansion and kidnap Adrien if somebody didn't stop her. She probably would, at this rate. “You shouldn't be shut up by yourself in your house on Christmas Eve!”

“She's right, bro,” Nino said. “Being locked up in your house on Christmas Eve is just plain wrong.”

“Sneak out if you have to,” Alya said. “There's a million windows in your house; it's not like your hoverbot nannies can keep track of every single one. Just pop one open and slip out.”

“You're missing out on Marinette's parents' Christmas goodies,” Nino added.

Adrien groaned, somewhat melodramatically. “Don't make this any worse than it already is. I was already disappointed about having to miss out on tonight without knowing that Marinette's parents made food for us.”

“Sneak on over here and you won't miss out,” Alya reasoned in a singsong-y sort of voice.

“I can't,” Adrien insisted. “I gave my father enough of a scare last year when I snuck out of the house on Christmas. If I did that to him again…Alya, I can't. You and Nino tell Marinette I'm really sorry I couldn't make it. Please.”

“Tell her yourself.” Marinette shook her head no—she didn't know how on earth she was supposed to say anything that would be both coherent and understanding at the same time—but Alya was already shoving the phone at her. “She's right here.”

There was a little pause, as if Adrien hadn't realized that Alya and Nino were already at Marinette's house. “Hey, Marinette,” he said, quietly, like he hadn't meant for her to hear all of that.

“Um, hi,” she replied. She accepted the phone from Alya without really realizing it. “So, um, you…uh…”

“Can't make it,” he confirmed glumly. “I'm really sorry, Marinette. I know how much you were looking forward to this. But, um…at least you've got Nino and Alya there with you, right?”

“R-right.” Marinette glanced back at them, and Alya made a _go on_ gesture with her hand.

Go on? What on earth was she supposed to say? Did Alya expect her to somehow, by some miracle, convince Adrien to sneak out of his house to come spend Christmas Eve with them? Frantically, she tried to think of something that wouldn't come across as horribly idiotic or horribly insensitive. “Um…so…”

“Maybe next year?” Adrien suggested, but he still sounded downcast.

“Yeah, maybe…um…maybe next year,” she agreed, but a thought had occurred to her halfway through the sentence, and her mind was racing. It might take some convincing, but… “Actually, um, what if we…what if we came over there? To…to your house, I mean. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind if we did, if I explained what's going on.” Alya was nodding encouragingly now, and Marinette continued. “Actually, I might be able to convince them to come along, if you want. They really like you, so I'm sure they'd love to come too.”

Adrien was quiet for so long that Marinette started to wonder if maybe he had hung up on her. She was about to ask him if he was still there when he said, in a very tiny voice, “You would do that? For me?”

He sounded so stunned at the notion that Marinette wished he were standing in front of her so she could hug him. “Of course! You're a—a friend, and no one deserves to be alone on Christmas Eve.” _Least of all you_ , she added silently.

There was another very long moment of silence. “I really appreciate the offer, Marinette,” Adrien finally said, “but I can't make you go to all that trouble for me. It's okay. I'll…um…I'll watch some Christmas movies or something, and I'll ask Father when he gets home if maybe we could hang out for New Year's.”

“Gimme that.” Before Marinette could say anything, Alya took the phone again. “Stop making yourself miserable, Agreste. Marinette's offering because it's not any trouble. Now let us come over.”

“Alya, you can't just invite yourself over to someone else's house,” Nino hissed at her.

Alya stuck her tongue out at him before turning her attention back to the phone. “Come on. Do you really want to sit by yourself in front of that big-ass TV and watch movies all night when you could be spending time with your friends? Your father let the whole class in last Christmas. I don't think he's gonna flip if you have three people over for a couple hours, if that's what you're worried about.”

“It's fine, Alya,” Adrien insisted. “You guys can have fun at Marinette's tonight, and I'll talk to Father about New Year's. Don't worry about it.”

Alya groaned. “Okay, fine. But you know you can always call if you change your mind. It's not gonna be the same without you.”

“Thanks.” There was so much appreciation, so much gratitude in that one word that it made Marinette's heart throb. “I'll…see you for New Year's, then.”

“No backing out!” Alya said. Adrien laughed out a goodbye, and she hung up. “Jeez, that Adrien. I bet he's spent the whole day by himself. Maybe we should go over there anyway and surprise him.”

They probably would have ended up going, if it weren't for the weather taking a turn for the worse only an hour later. But when it grew too cold and snowy for anyone to be walking anywhere, Nino and Alya's parents drove over to pick them up, and the plan to surprise Adrien had to be abandoned. Once Marinette had said her goodbyes to her friends and bade her parents good night, she went back up to her room and looked out at the white blur on the other side of her window.

“I guess patrol would be a bad idea in this weather,” she remarked to Tikki.

Tikki hovered at the window to look at the snow. “You could do it,” she said slowly, “but I don't know if you want to make Chat Noir go outside in that.”

“Not really,” Marinette admitted. She climbed up to her loft. “I should probably tell him to stay in so that he's not sitting outside waiting for me in that. Tikki, transform me.” She nestled herself under her blankets, just in case her parents came to check if she was in bed, and opened her yo-yo to call Chat.

He answered almost immediately. He must have just been getting ready to go out for patrol. Snow dusted his blond hair like little dots of powdered sugar. “My lady. What a pleasure. I was just on my way to meet you. Wait—where are you?” He leaned in closer on the screen, obviously inspecting her surroundings. “A tent? A…blanket?”

“I'm at home, inside, where it's warm,” she replied. She tried to ignore the wordless exclamation of surprise that came from the other end, and the attempted bombardment of questions that followed. “And that's where you should be, too. At home. I'm not going to make us patrol in this weather. And it's Christmas Eve anyway. You should stay home with your family. If they haven't already gone to bed, that is.”

“I don't mind patrolling tonight,” he insisted. “I'm a little old for a visit from Santa Claus, and I'd be the only one up back home. And the weather's really not that bad once you get used to it. It's actually kind of pretty. A little windy,” he admitted as a gust blew his bangs into his eyes, “but it's peaceful and quiet. We could just do a short lap around the Ile de la Cité and call it a night.” He hesitated. “Unless you'd rather stay inside. I won't make you come out in the cold, if you'd rather stay home. I can handle patrol by myself. I was … there was something I was hoping to give you tonight, but it can wait. I can always give it to you later.”

He had a present for her? She shook off the sudden impulse to go meet him, and forced herself to focus on the conversation. “You're seriously going to patrol in this weather by yourself?”

“If you want to stay inside and keep warm,” he confirmed. “It is a little chilly, I'll admit, but it could be worse. I think my kwami is helping me stay warm. And, um…I'd rather not be home right now, if I'm being entirely honest.”

That did it. Her kitty, alone in the cold, just to avoid being at home on Christmas Eve? She wasn't going to stand for it. “Stay right there, kitty. I'll come meet you, and we can patrol. My family's already gone to bed anyway. See you in five?”

Chat's face brightened like Christmas had already come. “I'll be waiting, my lady.” He swept her a bow before hanging up.

Ladybug scrambled out from under her covers and, after grabbing a couple of things, climbed through the trap door to her terrace. Once she had Chat's location identified on her yo-yo, she took off.

He'd been right; it really wasn't so bad outside when you were transformed and you got used to speeding through the chilly wind. She was pretty sure her nose had turned pink, but there were worse things in the world, and it at least wasn't running. Chat was waiting for her by the Panthéon when she got there. “Hope you didn't have to stand here too long,” she remarked as she came up to him.

Chat slung an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her close in a one-armed embrace. “Better than sitting at home,” he reminded her. He moved away just enough to look her over, like he couldn't believe she had actually come. “So … um … patrol? I figured maybe we could go up as far as the Pont des Artes and then loop around on the other side of the Seine and cross back over at the Pont de Sully.”

“How about we make that the Pont Marie,” Ladybug suggested. She held up the thermos she had snagged before leaving home. “I don't want this to get too cold.” He made a grab for the thermos, and she yanked it out of reach. “Nuh-uh, kitty. This is for after. We finish patrol first, and then I warm you up.”

“And I give you your present.” He grinned. “Okay, deal. Shall we?”

They kept patrol short as planned, although they did stop for a snowball fight at the Louvre for a few minutes and again at the Théâtre du Châtelet. They were both covered in powdery white by the time they finished, the snow in their hair sparkling like tiny stars under the street lights. At the Square René Viviani, they decided to call it quits rather than walk back to the Panthéon. The Christmas Market there had already closed, but they sat on one of the benches anyway, and Ladybug opened up the thermos.

“Hot chocolate?” Chat asked her excitedly after getting only one whiff of the thermos' contents. “You brought hot chocolate?”

She smiled; his delight was catching. “Homemade and fresh.” She poured out a full serving into the lid and passed it to him. “Here. Drink. Since you had to wait for me so long.”

“This is worth the wait,” he assured her, and took a long sip. When he set the lid down again, his eyes were alight with even more excitement than before. “This is amazing, Ladybug! Did you make this yourself?”

“Not by myself,” she admitted. “I made it with my family. But I did make these myself.” She offered him the few macarons she had managed to sneak out along with the thermos.

Chat looked like he probably would have hugged her again if he hadn't been holding onto a thermos lid full of hot chocolate. Instead, he settled for taking one of the macarons. “You're incredible. I didn't know you could bake.”

“I don't bake very often,” she said. “I just made some for a few friends I had over earlier, and my family took the leftovers. I had to sneak these ones back out of the kitchen to bring them here.” It was mostly true. She'd snuck them out of the bakery, not the kitchen, but Chat didn't have to know that and it was probably better if he didn't. It was just one little white lie.

“They still taste amazing.” He set the thermos lid down to start fumbling in his pocket. “Here. Before I forget, I have to give you your present.”

“You really didn't have to get me any—”

“But I wanted to.” He'd found what he was looking for; a little wrapped box sat in his palm expectantly, its ribbon somewhat crushed from being in his pocket for so long. “Take it. I insist. Consider it a…a thank you for all the time we've spent together.”

She wanted to argue, and probably would have, if it weren't for the expression on his face. He looked so happy to be giving her a present, so excited to see what she would think of it, that she didn't have the heart to refuse his gift. She took the box and tore off the wrapping. It looked suspiciously like a jewelry box. “Chat, what did you—”

“Open it before you try to scold me,” he insisted.

Ladybug sighed—if he had spent a huge amount of money buying her a gift, she thought, she was going to give him a _very_ firm lecture on the matter—but did as he said. Inside the box was nestled a simple silver necklace chain, with a tiny pendant shaped like a Chinese character hanging from it. “Oh my God. Chat…”

“It means 'good luck' in Chinese,” Chat explained hurriedly, pointing to the pendant. “My kwami mentioned that the Miraculous had been in Tibet for a long time, but I was looking at the box it came in and it looked more Chinese than Tibetan, and the jewelry store didn't sell any Tibetan stuff anyway, and I knew this meant good luck in Chinese so I—”

“Wait, wait, wait.” She cut him off. “You speak Chinese?”

He blinked owlishly before her question seemed to register. Then he cringed. “Just a little,” he replied, though it sounded more like a question than an answer. “Enough to be able to read that. I…I figured this would be more subtle than you walking around wearing a ladybug pendant around your neck, and the only other subtle option I could think of was earrings, which would obviously be a bad idea for several reasons, and it kind of fit with the Chinese theme on the Miraculous cases, so…”

She smiled as he kept rambling on about how he had found the pendant and had bought it almost immediately. It fit more than he realized. She'd have to be careful about wearing it as a civilian, but she could probably pass it off as a gift from her great uncle or something. Taking it out of its box, she put it around her neck where it belonged. He slowly trailed off as he noticed she had put it on. “Thank you, Chat Noir. It's beautiful. I just wish I had something this nice to offer you in return.”

Chat held up the thermos. “This is more than enough for me,” he assured her. “Homemade hot chocolates and sweets? I wouldn't trade all the fancy jewelry in the world for something you made yourself.”

How was it that he always knew exactly what to say? She grinned and pulled him in for a hug. “Merry Christmas, Chat Noir.”

~

“So, are you going to head home?” Ladybug asked Chat as they stood and prepared to leave for the night.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I might stay out a while longer. I'm not sure I'm ready to go back home just yet.”

Here was her chance to ask, then. It was a little selfish, after his sweet Christmas present, but she couldn't help it. “Then, um, while you're out, would you mind…checking on someone for me? He's been having a pretty bad night too and I just want to make sure he's doing okay.”

Chat's expression softened. “Of course. Who is it?”

“Adrien Agreste,” she answered. At Chat's stunned stare, she elaborated. “His father had work or something today, and he missed out on a Christmas party with his friends, so he spent the whole day by himself and I'm just kind of worried and he really doesn't deserve to be alone today so if you could just check on him for a few minutes…It'd be a chance for you to warm up before you go home, too, and that way you don't have to go home right away. If you don't want to, that's fine, I just thought…” She trailed off, her cheeks flushing redder than they already were from the cold.

Chat was quiet for a minute, looking down at the ground as if in thought. Then he looked back up at her and said, “Why don't you visit him?”

It was her turn to stare at him. “What?”

“I mean…” Chat shrugged. “You, um, you obviously care a lot about whether he's okay or not, and I've…heard he really admires you, so…um…he might appreciate it more if you went to see him?”

“You think so?” It sounded too good to be true. Far too good to be true. Adrien, admire her? Look up to her as a hero, maybe, (that was believable,) but admire her? She forced down the urge to spin in a giddy circle right then and there.

“Absolutely.” He shuffled his weight as if nervous. “So…um…you still want me to go, or…?”

Hell, she thought, she could buck up for five minutes to make sure Adrien wasn't entirely miserable. It was Christmas Eve, for heaven's sake. “I guess I can go.”

~

Adrien had just stepped out of his bathroom, a towel draped over his hair, when she got to the Agreste mansion. He noticed her at the window immediately. _Ladybug?_ she saw him mouth through the glass. He opened the window for her, and stepped aside to let her in. “To, um, to what do I owe the, um…the pleasure?”

She was snapped out of her desperate attempt not to focus on the fact that he was in his pajamas. “Huh? Oh! I, uh, I heard from a…friend of yours that you were spending Christmas Eve alone, and I…thought maybe you would…like some company for a while…?” She trailed off into a whisper. It sounded much stupider when she said it out loud to him. Ladybug, superhero of Paris, keep him company because she'd heard he might be lonely? Why had she ever thought this was a good idea?

But Adrien didn't seem to think it sounded stupid, because he was smiling in that way that always made her feel like she was walking on air. “I would love to have your company for a while,” he said. Then his choice of words seemed to register belatedly in his mind, and he turned surprisingly red. “I—I mean! Um! Did I say love? I meant—um—never mind. Never mind. I…thought I misspoke but I guess I didn't. I thought I said I loved…I mean, never mind!”

Was he really that happy about having a visitor? Now she wished that she and Alya and Nino had braved the weather to come see him after all. Then he would have had more than just one person to spend time with, and they could have had their Christmas celebration just like they'd planned it. “So you've really been all alone all day?”

“Well, I have the gorilla,” Adrien hedged with an embarrassed smile, but she knew he didn't think that counted as company. “And Nathalie. So I haven't been entirely alone.” As if hoping to change the subject, he added, “I like your necklace, by the way. The 'good luck' pendant is really fitting.”

“Oh!” She'd forgotten she was wearing that! Shoot, she'd meant to take it off before coming here. She clasped her hand around the pendant. “Um, thank you. Chat Noir got it as a Christmas present…for…”

Wait.

_“The 'good luck' pendant is really fitting.”_

Wait just one minute.

_“It means 'good luck' in Chinese,” Chat explained hurriedly, pointing to the pendant._

_“Wait, wait, wait. You speak Chinese?”_

_“Just a little.”_

Something clicked, a little something that she had probably noticed for a long time but had never wanted to connect. Her mouth popped open in a silent scream as she stared at Adrien. Her finger came up to point at him. He looked baffled until she managed to regain her power of speech enough to whisper hoarsely, “ _Chat Noir?_ ”

If any part of her had been hoping he would deny it, those hopes were promptly dashed as he nodded and offered her a sheepish grin. “Hi, my lady,” he said with a tiny wave.

“Oh my God.” She covered her face with her hands and spun so that she didn't have to look at him anymore. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. There was no way on earth that this was happening. “What happened to keeping our identities a secret?”

“I thought you were ready to share,” Adrien defended himself. “When you gave me those macarons from your family's bakery and said you'd made them yourself. I mean, you'd told me, what was I supposed to do? It wouldn't be right for me to know your identity and keep you in the dark about mine.”

“Wait.” She spun back around, afraid to look at him and peeking at him through her fingers anyway. “What do you mean, I told you?”

“You gave me macarons from your family's bakery,” he repeated. “They had the little logo on them and everything and you said you made them yourself.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Ladybug fumbled for the crumpled bag that still held two of the macarons—Chat hadn't finished all of them earlier—and pulled one out. To her horror, she realized that in her rush to meet Chat Noir she must have grabbed the wrong macarons. The family bakery's logo was indeed stamped on the tops. “Oh, God. Oh my God. You're right. Oh my God.”

“Wait, are you telling me it was an accident?” Adrien paled. “You didn't do that on purpose? I thought you were just trying to be discreet about it, that's why I didn't say anything while I was eating them!”

“Oh my God, I screwed up, Tikki is gonna kill me, I'm so dead, I can't believe I didn't look at those _stupid_ macarons before I put them in the bag—”

“Ladybug—”

“—and oh my God, if Hawk Moth finds out we know each other's identities then we're _really_ gonna be screwed, because then he'll probably try to target us individually and make one of us reveal who the other is—”

“ _Ladybug—_ ”

“—and Jesus Christ, kitty, did you really think I would reveal my identity to you in such a roundabout way instead of just flat out _telling_ you, because I would never in a million years go about it that—”

“Marinette!”

Hearing her name while she was still transformed was enough of a jolt that she cut herself off and stared at him. “What?”

He offered her a crooked smile. “Hawk Moth can do whatever he wants. I'd never tell him your identity. And, um…” He stepped closer, just close enough to take her hands in his. His eyes caught the moonlight filtering through the window, and reflected it back in beautiful shards of diamond-bright green, and Ladybug felt her breath stick somewhere in her throat.

“For what it's worth,” he said, his gaze never wavering from her eyes, “I'm really, really glad it's you.”

She didn't even have a chance to begin to think of what she could say in reply before he pulled her in for a crushingly tight embrace that lifted her feet an inch or two off the ground. Slowly, her mind began to register that Adrien was hugging her, _Chat Noir_ was hugging her, and he really gave much greater hugs than she had ever given him credit for as Chat, and _wait why is he hugging me?_ “A—Adrien?”

“Hm?” He set her down. “What is it?”

“I—I'm happy that you're happy about this, and that you promised never to tell anyone, but…um…I'm just curious. _Why_ are you so happy about this?” How was he not freaking out? It was still taking everything in her not to scream about the fact that Chat freaking Noir was Adrien Agreste, and here he was grinning his head off and hugging her.

“Are you kidding? Marinette, you're one of my best friends and one of the most amazing people I know.” He traced the shape of her mask across her face. “Finding out that you're Ladybug? That just makes you even more incredible. I can't think of a single person I would rather have as my lady.”

She bit her lip. That was very high praise, even coming from Adrien, and it made her wonder guiltily—was she happy that he was Chat Noir? Or disappointed?

Adrien looked like he was starting to wonder the same thing; his bright smile was beginning to falter, and his hands slipped away from hers. “Too much?” he guessed ruefully.

Ladybug barely registered his question. Her mind was too busy racing, trying to sort out how she felt now that she knew her dorky kitty and her crush were the same person. Adrien, that sweet, sweet boy who had given her his umbrella even though she'd been treating him like dirt, and Chat Noir, her crazy, silly partner who always put her before himself in a fight. It seemed a bizarre dichotomy, and yet…not.

And then she remembered the confession she had written in her diary a very long time ago, a confession she had promptly decided to erase from her conscious memory after writing it.

If she hadn't met Adrien, she might have given Chat Noir a chance.

There was a strange irony in knowing that she had been rejecting Adrien because of…well…Adrien.

She almost laughed at herself out loud, and only stopped herself from doing so in the nick of time. God, she'd been such an idiot this whole time. But she knew what her answer would have to be now. If she really cared about Adrien the way she always claimed to, that meant accepting all of him.

Even the pun-loving, life-risking, leather-clad cat side of him.

Adrien was in the middle of talking when she finally pulled herself out of her thoughts. “—and if you hate me now I completely understand, it was stupid of me to assume that you were trying to reveal your identity that way and I never should have suggested for you to come here like this just so I could tell you who I am—”

“Adrien.” He snapped to attention, his expression inquisitive. She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, and smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner and not as nervous-looking as she felt. “I don't hate you. I could never hate you. We're partners, remember? I would trust you with my life.” She took a deep breath. “And I guess in a way that's kind of what I'm trusting you with now, since if Hawk Moth ever discovered our identities it could mean our necks. I'm a little…shaken up, but I'm not mad, and I don't hate you. It was my stupid mistake that caused this problem, not you.”

Adrien sighed in relief. “So…”

“So we sort this mistake out one step at a time,” she said. “It's not the end of the world. We'll…we've survived worse. We'll be okay.”

“We'll be okay,” he agreed, and a slow smile made its way back onto his face.

“I should probably go,” she remarked, although she would rather have stayed and figured things out now. “It's getting really late and I wasn't expecting to stay long. But I'll, um…see you at school?”

“Yeah,” he said. “See you at school.”

“But, um, before I go…” She gave him a quick hug. “Just for the record, I'm…I'm really glad it's you.” Then she released him, and moved back towards the window. Adrien caught her wrist just as she was grabbing her yo-yo.

“Will you wear your necklace when I see you for New Year's?” he asked, a world of hope in his eyes.

She couldn't help smiling. It was such a simple request, and so like both Adrien and her kitty. “Nothing could ever convince me to take it off.” She turned to face him for just a second, bolstering up enough courage to manage a tiny kiss to his cheek. “Merry Christmas, kitty.”

Adrien's hand flew to his cheek as if he couldn't believe she had just kissed it, but he was beaming. “Merry Christmas, my lady.” And blowing her a kiss in return, he stepped back to let her leave.

 


End file.
